2024 Election Latest: Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries endorse Kamala Harris’ 2024 candidacy

Vice President Kamala Harris flew to her first battleground state Wisconsin after locking up enough support from Democratic delegates to earn the party’s nomination. Democratic leaders Charles Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries endorsed Harris on Tuesday, capping off their party’s swift embrace of her 2024 candidacy.

Meanwhile, Kimberly Cheatle, the director of the Secret Service stepped down from her job following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump.

Follow the AP’s Election-2024 coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.

Here's the Latest:

Pennsylvania governor: Cheatle’s resignation was ‘right thing to do’

Asked about Cheatle’s resignation Tuesday at an unrelated news conference in Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro said it was the “right thing to do.”

“What happened in Butler was an absolute failure and there needs to be answers as to what went wrong. And I think her resignation is an important step in that process,” Shapiro said.

Trump says Netanyahu will visit him in Florida

Trump says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit him at his Florida estate on Thursday.

Trump made the announcement in a post on his social media network in which he said, “my PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH Agenda will demonstrate to the World that these horrible, deadly Wars, and violent Conflicts must end. Millions are dying, and Kamala Harris is in no way capable of stopping it.”

Trump has spoken to other foreign leaders recently, including two visits at his home from Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán over the past few months.

Trump also had a phone call last week with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Biden tests negative for COVID-19

President Joe Biden is now free of COVID-19.

The White House released a letter from his personal physician, Kevin O’Connor, on Tuesday noting that Biden was testing negative for the virus and that his symptoms have resolved.

Biden, who has been convalescing at his home in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, is returning to Washington later Tuesday.

Democratic leadership endorse Harris for presidential nomination

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Schumer said in a news conference with Jeffries on Tuesday that President Joe Biden’s “selfless decision” not to run “has given the Democratic Party the opportunity to unite behind a new nominee.”

He said the leaders waited to endorse her until she had secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump.

Biden said Sunday that he would not run.

Schumer said he spoke to Harris on Sunday and she wanted to win the nomination “on her own.” Jeffries added that Harris is “ready, willing and able to lead us into the future.”

Senators to introduce legislation requiring Senate confirmation of future Secret Service directors

U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., are introducing legislation on Tuesday to require Senate confirmation of future Secret Service directors.

The legislation comes 10 days after the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump at a campaign rally.

Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle said Tuesday she is resigning.

Secret Service directors are currently appointed by the president. The senators said that making it a Senate-confirmed position would ensure that the individual is qualified to serve and force more oversight and transparency of the embattled agency. The senators called for immediate passage of the bill.

“President Trump’s brush with death was a Secret Service failure of epic proportions, and this mission failure must never be repeated,” Grassley said.

Secret Service’s deputy director appointed as acting director, Homeland Security secretary says

Secret Service Deputy Director Ronald Rowe has been appointed acting director of the agency, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

Rowe is a 24-year veteran of the Secret Service and has served as deputy director since April 2023.

“I appreciate his willingness to lead the Secret Service at this incredibly challenging moment, as the agency works to get to the bottom of exactly what happened on July 13 and cooperate with ongoing investigations and Congressional oversight,” Mayorkas said in a statement Tuesday.

Mayorkas said he has the “utmost confidence in Deputy Director Rowe and the men and women of the Secret Service, who put their lives on the line every day and deserve our full support.”

The second gentleman’s visit to an abortion clinic

At a northern Virginia abortion clinic, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, made his first appearance since his wife became heir apparent for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination.

Emhoff toured the facility, talked with doctors, and then sat down with Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to share his thoughts with a gaggle of news reporters.

It was also Emhoff’s first visit to an abortion clinic.

He called the doctor’s challenges to open her clinic “really disturbing,” and shook his head at stories of patients, who have struggled to get abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to one.

“It was important for me to be here today,” Emhoff said, calling the landscape since the Supreme Court ruling “horrific.”

North Carolina governor: Harris’ running mate should have a ‘vision for America’

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper told reporters in Winston-Salem that he wants Vice President Kamala Harris to have “the very best person” as her running mate and will “respect her process” in choosing someone for that position. He declined further comment on his own prospects of becoming her running mate, including whether he has submitted vetting materials to the campaign.

“I appreciate people thinking of me that way, but like I say, this is the time for us to be supporting Kamala Harris, putting her in the spotlight,” Cooper said Tuesday.

Whoever becomes Harris’ running mate should have a “vision for America,” he said.

“I think there are a long list of Democrats who could do an amazing job in that position with her,” Cooper said. “The thing is, she has extraordinary people to pick from and I trust that she’s going to make the right decision — not only for her but for the Democratic Party and the country.”

White House press secretary says calls for Biden to leave the presidency are ‘ridiculous’

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre is dismissing Republican suggestions that President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race suggests that he’s no longer capable of finishing his term in the White House.

“I think that’s ridiculous. Seriously,” Jean-Pierre said Tuesday on ABC’s “The View.” “The president decided to not run for reelection. That’s it. That’s all he decided on. He wants to continue to do the work.”

She said the administration will “run through the finish line” and the end of Biden’s presidency in January.

Jean-Pierre argued that Biden’s leaving the race was him putting the country ahead of himself, saying, “This president was a public servant for 54 years.”

She quickly added, “We’re not done yet. He stepped down from being the nominee, but he’s still the president.”

New volunteers give Democrats a boost of optimism

After weeks of being downcast about the November election, Democrats in Congress have come back with a renewed sense of optimism as Vice President Kamala Harris has entered the presidential race.

They are especially encouraged by the boost in new volunteers.

Democrats hope that having Harris at the top of the ticket will give them a better chance of retaking a majority in the House and even potentially holding on to the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and one of the first Democrats to endorse Harris, said the turnout of tens of thousands of new volunteers would help turn the dynamics of the race.

“That is the juice behind the campaign,” Jayapal said. “That is the organizing. That is the door-knocking. That’s going to get people to care about the election and be able to see themselves in it.”

Biden will address the nation Wednesday on his decision to drop 2024 reelection bid

President Joe Biden will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday evening on his decision to drop his 2024 Democratic reelection bid.

Biden posted on the social platform X that he would speak “on what lies ahead” and how he will “finish the job for the American people.” He will speak at 8 p.m. ET.

The president is scheduled to return to the White House on Tuesday after isolating at his Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, home after being diagnosed last week with COVID-19.

Biden to appoint a new Secret Service director following Cheatle's resignation

President Joe Biden says he’s grateful for Secret Service Director Kim Cheatle’s decades of public service and says he will soon appoint a new leader for the agency.

In a statement shortly after Cheatle announced her resignation over the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump, Biden said Cheatle “selflessly dedicated and risked her life to protect our nation” and said he wishes her “all the best.”

“The independent review to get to the bottom of what happened on July 13 continues, and I look forward to assessing its conclusions,” Biden said. “We all know what happened that day can never happen again.”

House Speaker calls Cheatle’s resignation ‘overdue’

House Speaker Mike Johnson says the resignation of Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle was “overdue” and that it should have happened at least a week ago.

News of Cheatle’s resignation happened just as Johnson and Republican leaders were wrapping up their weekly press conference Tuesday morning.

“I’m happy to see that,” Johnson said. “I’m happy to see she has heeded the call of both Republicans and Democrats. Now we have to pick up the pieces. We have to rebuild the American people’s faith and trust in the Secret Service as an agency.”

Earlier Tuesday, Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries announced the formation of a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump and the security failures that led up to it.

Trump: ‘I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy’ after the administration ‘did not properly protect me’

Minutes after news of Cheatle’s resignation broke, Trump posted a statement on his social media network saying: “The Biden/Harris Administration did not properly protect me, and I was forced to take a bullet for Democracy. IT WAS MY GREAT HONOR TO DO SO!”

Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on Cheatle’s resignation. It was not clear if Trump’s post in reaction to the news about the Secret Service director’s resignation.

Secret Servic

e director resigns

The director of the Secret Service is stepping down from her job following the assassination attempt against former President Donald Trump that unleashed intensifying outcry about how the agency tasked with protecting current and former presidents could fail in its core mission.

Kimberly Cheatle had served as Secret Service director since August 2022.

Cheatle announced her departure in an email she sent to staff. Cheatle had been facing growing calls to resign and several investigations into how the shooter was able to get so close to the Republican presidential nominee at an outdoor campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

House Republicans pivot to Harris and her work on immigration

House Republicans are quickly pivoting their focus from President Joe Biden to his possible successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, and her work on the issue of immigration.

Rules Committee Chair Michael Burgess, R-Texas, said his panel will take up an emergency resolution Tuesday that focuses on the “failures of the position of the border czar and how that has negatively affected our fellow citizens around the country.”

The panel’s action would tee up the condemnation resolution for a full House vote later this week.

Harris was tasked early in the Biden administration with tackling the migration challenges at the U.S. southern border and working with Central American nations to address root causes of the problem.

“She’s responsible for the biggest failure of this administration,” said House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.

The Biden administration has been touting progress at the border. Arrests for illegally crossing the border from Mexico plunged 29% in June, the lowest month of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Wisconsin Republicans brand Harris as an ‘extreme liberal’ ahead of her visit

MILWAUKEE — Wisconsin Republican leaders are branding Vice President Kamala Harris as an “extreme liberal” who is out of step with most voters in the swing state just hours before she was to make a campaign stop there Tuesday.

“Kamala Harris’ favorables are as bad as Joe Biden’s,” said Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming at a news conference ahead of the Harris event at a high school outside of Milwaukee. “So they are exchanging one bad candidate for another bad candidate in the hope that the people of this state and this country don’t notice where she actually stands on the issues.”

Schimming and other Wisconsin Republicans argue Harris was appointed as a “border czar” and blamed her for unauthorized crossings, citing Biden’s tasking her with working on migration issues early in his term. Schimming also cited Harris’ co-sponsorship of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” national health insurance proposal.

“She was one of the most extreme liberals when she served in the U.S. Senate,” Schimming said. “A lot needs to be discovered about where she stands on critical issues that face this country. ... There’s issue after issue where Kamala Harris is not in sync with the people of Wisconsin and the people of America.”

Johnson and Jeffries say they support bipartisan task force to investigate assassination attempt

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries have issued a joint statement in support of a bipartisan task force to investigate the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump.

The House could vote as soon as Wednesday to establish the task force, which will be comprised of seven Republicans and six Democrats. Outrage over security failures that occurred to prevent the shooting has come from both sides of the political aisle.

“The task force will be empowered with subpoena authority and will move quickly to find the facts, ensure accountability, and make certain such failures never happen again,” Johnson and Jeffries said.

Despite Musk’s Trump endorsement, X remains a go-to platform for Democrats

A week after Elon Musk endorsed Donald Trump for president, President Joe Biden’s team used Musk’s social platform X — in addition to more neutral spaces such as Facebook and Instagram — to announce he is ending his reelection campaign.

It’s a testament to how ingrained the platform has become among the power players of the political and media world, as well as users looking for news and live updates of major events.

While Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, along with TikTok, boast far more users, X users say keeping up with the news is not the reason they use those platforms, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.

X is the exception: most of the site’s users say following the news is a reason they use it and about half say they regularly get their news from there.

“X is where history happens,” posted X CEO Linda Yaccarino on Sunday with a screenshot of Biden’s announcement. While a comment pointed out that the same message was posted on other social media platforms as well, the narrative remains an important one for X and its long-touted efforts to become a “digital town square.”

▶ Read more about how X has remained a go-to for Democrats

Trump complains again about debate plans, says ABC News ‘is not worthy’

Trump is again complaining about the plans for a debate, suggesting that he may not be as confident in facing Harris as he was Biden.

The former president had said he would debate Biden “anytime, anywhere, any place” but early Tuesday morning Trump complained for the second time since Biden dropped out that ABC News “is not worthy of holding a Debate.”

He has suggested moving the debate to Fox News Channel, which is seen as a friendlier venue for him.

Harris to visit battleground Wisconsin in first rally as Democrats coalesce around her for president

Vice President Kamala Harris is making her first visit to a battleground state Tuesday after locking up enough support from Democratic delegates to win her party’s nomination to challenge Republican former President Donald Trump, two days after President Joe Biden dropped his reelection bid.

As the Democratic Party continues to coalesce around her, Harris is traveling to Milwaukee, where she will hold her first campaign rally since she launched her campaign on Sunday with Biden’s endorsement. Harris has raised more than $100 million since Sunday afternoon and has scored the backing of Democratic officials and political groups.

Tuesday’s visit was scheduled before Biden ended his campaign, but it took on new resonance as Harris prepared to take up the mantle of her party against Trump and looks to project calm and confidence after weeks of Democratic Party confusion over Biden’s political future.

▶ Read more about the visit and how Wisconsin is part of Democrats’ 2024 plans.

AP survey: Harris has enough support of Democratic delegates to become party’s presidential nominee

Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the support of enough Democratic delegates to become her party’s nominee against Republican Donald Trump, according to an  Associated Press survey  taken in the aftermath of President Joe Biden’s decision to drop his bid for reelection.

Harris, who was endorsed by Biden minutes after he announced he would not accept the Democratic nomination, worked to quickly lock up the support of her party’s donors, elected officials and other leaders, and has so far received support from at least 2,214.

However, the AP is not calling Harris the new presumptive nominee. That’s because the convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the convention in August or if Democrats hold a virtual roll call ahead of that gathering in Chicago.

For young voters, Harris is ‘far closer’ in age

Tatum Watkins, a 19-year-old college student from southwest Iowa and a delegate to the DNC, said she appreciates as a young woman that Harris is speaking out on issues like reproductive rights and is “far closer” in age to a whole new generation of voters.

“She is very much leaning into what’s popular right now,” Watkins said. “I’ve seen already her branding is what I can best describe as brat summer.”

Watkins said that has energized and excited her and other young Iowans, making what will be her first experience voting in a presidential election “even better.”

Rep. Dean: ‘I’ve never been more optimistic about America’

The mood among many House Democrats lifted quickly as lawmakers returned to Washington with Biden having handed off the election to Harris.

“I’ve never been more optimistic about America because of his leadership, his selflessness, his putting country first,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania.

“And then Kamala — woo! — I am excited,” she said. “I’m hearing from my constituents and folks they are so fired up.”

She said one way Harris could approach campaigning in a swing state like hers would be to pick Pennsylvania’s Gov. Josh Shapiro as her running mate for the vice presidential spot.

Biden to return to the White House, Harris will hit the campaign trail

President Biden is set to return to the White House tomorrow after spending six days at his beach home in Delaware convalescing from COVID-19. Biden became ill while campaigning in Las Vegas last week and headed to his vacation home to isolate.

Vice President Harris, meanwhile, will head to the battleground state of Wisconsin as her campaign for the White House kicks into high gear.

The event in Milwaukee will be her first full-fledged campaign event since announcing her candidacy on Sunday.